David Rieff

David Rieff (/ˈriːf/; born September 28, 1952, Boston) is an American non-fiction writer and policy analyst. His books have focused on issues of immigration, international conflict, and humanitarianism.

Rieff is the only child of Susan Sontag, who was 19 years old when he was born. His father, whom Sontag divorced, was Philip Rieff, author of Freud: The Mind of the Moralist. Sontag co-authored the book at age 25 but relinquished her rights to Philip, a gesture she always regretted. (Benjamin Moser#Sontag) Rieff was educated at the Lycée Français de New York and attended Amherst College as a member of the class of 1974, where he studied with Benjamin DeMott. He completed college at Princeton University, graduating with an A.B. in history in 1978.

Rieff was a Senior Editor at Farrar, Straus and Giroux from 1978 to 1989, working with such authors as Joseph Brodsky, Elias Canetti, Carlos Fuentes, Alberto Moravia, Les Murray, Philip Roth, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Marguerite Yourcenar.

Rieff is a Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research, a Fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a board member of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, of the Central Eurasia Project of the Open Society Institute and of Independent Diplomat.

Rieff has published numerous articles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, El Pais, The New Republic, World Affairs, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, and other publications.

Rieff has extensively written about the Bosnian War. He was also critical of American policies and actions that both informed and followed the invasion of Iraq.

• Without Exception: The Same Old Song, World Affairs
• Interview with Rieff (online only) PBS Frontline (March 25, 2003)
• Foreign Affairs review of At the Point of a Gun (March/April 2005)